The Pacific Ocean remained Pacified and docile today and thus we sailed into Puerto Chiapas without any problems. No rolling and hardly any yawing (ship behaving like a dog’s tail) on the waves who roll under our square stern and then try to lift it up. But because the ship is moving forward, the angle… read more of “31 Oct. 2016;…”

It was a sweltering day in Corinto and it was a sweltering day today in Puerto Quetzal. Although here we had about 10 knots of wind and that made it a bit more bearable. Better than yesterday when there was hardly anything at all. We were the only cruise ship in port and thus we… read more of “30 October 2016;…”

The docks of Corinto are located on the river and that river ends in the sea south of the town. So the port is nice and sheltered but you first have to get there. The town straddles a sort of peninsula with the sea on one side and the river on the other side. And… read more of “29 Oct. 2016;…”

This is a most peculiar place to visit as you have two options. In the good old days, we could only go to Puerto Caldera, which is the cargo port in the province of Punta Arenas. The provincial head town had a small pier as well but not suitable for our activities. So when we… read more of “28 Oct. 2016; Punta…”

It remained slow going after we left the last locks and by the time we made it to open seas, it remained slow going. It is the time of the year that the Right Whales are in the area. I explained on 16th or 27 October that we had to be very careful with the… read more of “27 October 2016; At…”

And thus we arrived at the breakwaters of Cristobal at 05.00 hrs. and then nothing happened. Same for the Zuiderdam; they had arrived even earlier and nothing happened for them either. For some reason the planned convoy scheduling had gone awry and the cruise ships kept being put back. Thus it was not until 07.30… read more of “26 October 2016;…”

I was running around by 05.30 in the morning as I had supervision and support of the new junior officers on my schedule. So I had the enjoyment of seeing sunrise over Cartagena and the pilot boarding. Before twilight started there was a nice light show in the clouds of big electric discharges but with… read more of “25 Oct. 2016;…”

We caught the tail end of the frontal system in the morning and it gave us the occasional shower on the deck until lunch time and then we were past it. Now we are slowly starting to come under the influence of the land mass of South America where much is covered by Jungle and… read more of “24 Oct. 2016; At…”